Captain's blog, startdate 38113.5

I... am bored, and Scotty... doesn't have... the power to move... the neurons in... my brain... responsible for stim...u...li.

lol I haven't been on here in a while, especially not since UG killed what attracted me to this site to begin with. Such a shame really, found some of the best personal music and some of the best people on here. Ah well, Reverbnation is a cool place for music anyways. Various FB groups on music are plagued with the kind idiots and children that plague the forums on here sometimes.

Anyhoo, seems my interest in guitar has been lacking a bit lately for some reason. Not giving it up or anything like that, but it seems to have taken a back seat to my love of arguing and debating, reading books by Dawkins and Sam Harris, reading about quantitative sciences and some philosophies, and trying to engage myself a bit in the battle against misleading and exaggerated political and religious dogma.

However, I couldn't record much music right now if I wanted to. My computer crashed again and I'm stuck with my cell phone. So I have nothing useful to record with. Though, I do have an effects pedal, so I can wah-wah like Kirk or put in some other various tones and effects. You heard it plugged directly into my computer on my newest recordings like the Duke Nukem theme and Carol Of The Bells. My amp is still shitty, in both reliability and in tone at high volumes. So suffice to say I can't really garage band much with it, that alone gig, even though I'd love to.

Since I'm not cut out for manual labor and have terrible ADHD, I might just collect social security, even though I hate the idea of being a stay at home tax collector.

Well, with this random update I bid my 3 subscribers a farewell and until next time.

Ultimate-Guitar Is A Cunt

I see U.G. is removing the ability to store your own MP3's on its site. RIP U.G., you were a fun site for musicians everywhere until you became a cunt. I will see you all on ReverbNation, YouTube, and SoundCloud.

90's Nostalgia

Whoever here is from the 90's will understand. Those who had kids in the 90's may just roll their eyes.

So, I find myself relapsing into nostalgia a lot lately. I even paid to see the new Godzilla movie, which I thought sucked and was a waste of my money. I'm finding myself watching old episodes of Pokemon a lot with other shows I grew up with, such as Batman, Superman, Dexter's Lab, Cow & Chicken, Ren & Stimpy, Hey Arnold, Godzilla TAS (takes place after the 1998 film,) and others.

I mean seriously, who here remembers the awesomeness of Pokemon? Remember in the show when Pikachu managed to take down his more evolved form Richu? Or when Charizard took down Magmaul by dunking him in lava in the volcano? Those moments are just childhood epic. Yep, an anime about animal fights that was made to troll Christians as its creator is an Atheist that was tired of Christian lies being shoved down his throat, so he used nature as influence and also had it mirror other beliefs with things like telepathy, psychic powers, and stuff. Yep, the good ol' days!

Spongebob. While the newer episodes are annoying, I still find myself cracking up just remembering the older episodes. Like Spongebob always failing at getting his driver's license, annoying Squidward, or Plankton trying to get the secret Krabby Patty formula. I still to this day want to know what a Krabby Patty tastes like, lol. I'M READAAAAYYYYY! I'M READY! I'M READY! I'M READY! DAAAHHAHAHAHAHA!

What about Batman and Superman? Those two cartoons were the shit back then between myself and my brothers! We always used to fight about stupid shit like kids do, but when those shows came on man, we were like best friends getting together for a beer. Batman was THE show to watch for something grim and with action. Superman wasn't grim, but the action scenes and everything else still made it worth while to watch that show. I don't know so much about Superman as I haven't watched it in over a decade, but the Batman cartoon still holds up today. The action and stuff is still fun, but the stories we see in some of the episodes really play out well imo.

Pinky And The Brain. Do I even have to say why that show is awesome? Narf! What isn't awesome about a genius mouse and his retarded psychic trying to take over the world?

I could go on for hours about various different shows like Johnny Bravo where a guy is constantly just trying to get some pussy by acting macho, or even the older cartoons like Scooby Doo which is about a group of stoners and their talking dog doing what we all thought cops did back when we were kids. Unmasking monsters! lol Bugs Bunny is also a favorite, or Wile E. Coyote who never gave up. Pretty good roll model for kids, ja?

I find it funny, the different perspective we see things from when we're watching things as we're older, as opposed to when we're younger, huh?

The Lion King for an example. When we're younger, we see it as just lions and other animals doing funny things with awesome musical numbers. When we're older, we see it as Scar being much like the rise of Lenin or Hitler. Kinda creeps me out that his song was my favorite as a kid (and is still the best song in that movie.)

Or Hey Arnold for an example. Yeah, the show about 4th graders doing things 4th graders do. I still love the show btw, but there is some interesting social commentary I notice in that show now-a-days, like using chocolate to talk about the addiction to speed.

And don't even get me started on the historical references in Star Wars. Just the blockade and invasion of Naboo alone represented the British occupation of Jamaica (which is why we have dat retard Jar-Jar Binks.)

So, with my severe relapse into nostalgia over-coming me almost like a disease, I think I'm going to go watch a few of these epic cartoons that I grew up with. Starting with........ Batman. BECAUSE I'M BATMAN!

Is Fenriz Over-Rated?

Is the hype around Fenriz really all that is cracked up to be, or is he just the underground version of Slash? While his musical talents aren't in question here as he is rather good, is he good enough to have the same reaction from people as 13 year old Pantera fans everytime they hear Dimebag? The fact that he played multiple styles of music doesn't necessarily grant someone worthy of great fanboy-ish respect. Almost any professional musician could do what he did. I know people personally who have played in several different bands at a time, all different genres. He has been credited by some to have been a big influence on Black Metal, but that genre is hardly one I have respect for most cases. It istoo often way too simplistic, and a melencholy atmosphere is usually flat out boring for me. So why does his name pop up as often in Metal forums as Dimebag's name does on Ultimate-Guitar? Why do people see the need to put him on a petastol? What drives a fanboy's mind?

Thoughts On Metallica's New Song

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f7rh_eL9Jlc

When I heard the song at first, I thought it to be a bit inconsistant and with too much involved in the structure, like 2 choruses one after the other aren't needed. Plus the seemingly jumping back and fourth of what the song is, from Thrash to Rock.

Then it hit me, this is like the other songs Metallica released before Magnetic. They will take some riffs and ideas from this song to put them into a song on the album.

So judging on the parts of this song I do like, let us look at the verse riff. Fast, percussive, almost sounds like Battery with that percussive galloping rhythm. Riffs after the solo seem like something you would hear on the RTL album, not as fast but, percussive and catchy.

Tempo changes are also present, along with more guitar harmonies! Lars using double bass live again is also something worth taking note of.

Last but not least is James' improved voice. It has grit again, and while it isn't his AJFA voice, it still sounds great and fit for Metal once more.

Now for some things I wasn't too fond of, quickly. Kirk's solo and lead bit leading up to it was a tad boring, there was no Thrashy verse after it but rather a more Rock chorus, and that Rock chorus in other parts of the song, as well as some of the slower, less Thrashy riffs being a little weak.

Well, there's my opinion. I really look forward to their new album, if it is as good as the good parts to this ideas song.

I'm not a fan of New Wave Thrash Metal.

I will tell you why, one reason and one reason only. 99% of the newer
Thrash bands lack a little thing I like to call Originality. Havok,
Vektor, Antichrist, Essence, and a million other bands that I didn't
even bother remembering the name of. WAY too many of them are just
ripping off Kreator and Destruction. Every band you hear it seems like
is derivative from them, and I'm beginning to think that there's nothing
new that can be brought to Thrash Metal. Even mixing Thrash with other
genres has been done to exhaustion.

It's a shame because if you look back to the 80's you have brilliant
Thrash bands left and right, in both the melodic and aggressive
categories. Now it seems like the modern Thrash bands aren't even trying
and have become as repetitive as Metalcore (I have the same problem
with many Death and Black Metal bands, too.) You either have bands
ripping off the Teutonic 4, or the American Big 4, and that shit gets
old, quick.

There is the occasional band that I will come across such as Alphakill
which not too many other bands sound like, because they're a modern
Prog. Thrash band with melody in the vocals while still having a rather
aggressive and speedy sound, though with wanky riffs and clacky drums.

Even music reviewers I know, while may disagree with me and say
originality is overrated when it comes to Thrash Metal, will still say
that there hasn't been an original Thrash band since the early 90's, and
that much of his opinion I agree with, and it's a true shame that
people stopped trying to make things new and just made music that
sounded like something everyone else has already made.

Most I hear now, which is over-done, is Aggressive Thrash being mixed
with Crossover Thrash. It sounds good when a band or two does it, but
not when 1,000 different bands do. I've also heard Thrash being mixed
with some Trend Cock styled riffs, like in the band Abandoned, at least,
their second album is like that. Their first album is a lot more like
Slayer, a bit too much like Slayer really.

Why don't Thrash bands look to what influenced that style of music in
the first place? Look to Judas Priest, Motorhead, and a lot of the
NWOBHM bands and some old Punk and Hardcore, maybe even original
Thrashcore like Siege, instead of to bands already Thrash that they'll
just rip-off? Maybe even look to some newer influences to add something
more in the genre, too?

Well, there's my take on it. Now, I'll be off listening to my old school
Thrash Metal now, back in a time where the genre had original bands
everywhere and it was hard to find one band ripping off another's sound,
unless you looked to the worship bands. If I wanna listen to Aggressive
Thrash Metal, I'll listen to the bands everyone
copies, being Kreator or Destruction. I want Melodic Thrash, Metallica
and Testament. I want something in between, Slayer, Dark Angel,
Gammacide, and Onslaught. I want something a bit more complex, then
Voivod or Coroner.

Why does the music in the mainstream of America ha

Why does all the Metal (and really music in general) that's in the mainstream here suck now? Go back 20/30 years and even the Pop was amazing, but not now. Why is it that the teenagers, the people with the poorest sense of aesthetics, get to choose what the music industry puts out? Why can't the music industry look to those that have a true passion and love for music? This would allow teenagers to be exposed to much more brilliant music, as well as everyone else who just casually listens to whatever is on the radio. I mean sure, some people are naturally gonna like dulled down music, I'm not saying get rid of those bands completely, but why not also have good music to go with it? Why only sell the generic and soulless music and ignore the music made by people with a passion for it? Why not sell both?

My Idea For A MetalHead Nation

My vision of a country for MetalHeads.

The Thrash Metal people would have a small problem as there would be
little gangs forming in their sector, Metallica and Megadeth rivalry,
would result in drive by guitar blastings. Otherwise it'd be great and
idealy the place where I'd be hanging out. Toxic Waltz would be the
dance of our people. These are also the people that our soldiers and
politicians would come from.

Heavy Metal itself would all be
united in newer and older bands, I'd visit there for a while I think.
You'd see those guys mostly on their bikes and hanging out in bars and
such. We have Death Metal and
Grindcore sorta surrounding the Nation as border patrol, as those pesky
Metalcore/Deathcore groups keep trying to get in here illegally. Good
thing they're there to keep 'em out. It would be a place I'd visit on
occasions.

Dark/Gothic Metal would live underground, in the sewers, only to come out at night when ravaging for food.

Doom Metal are the crime bosses of this city, the mafia if you will.

Folk Metal are the farmers and old people in rocking chairs here, very kind people, and may give you some moonshine.

Glam Metal are the gays, transvestites, transgenders, and hermaphrodites here. Hey, I'm not here to judge.

Industrial Metal is the clubbers, those who like to get out on the
dance floor and boogy. Sounds like a good time, may hang with them for a
few.

Neo-Classical Metal is for the sophisticated here, or
pseudo-sophisticated as well. It is the snobs, the rich people in this
country who live in mansions and control the economy. Hey, every society
needs the people that become successful by working off of other
people's sweat.

Power Metal guys are spread throughout this
country, usually meeting online to talk about Final Fantasy, Dungeons
And Dragons, and other miscellaneous nerdy things. Sounds kinda
familiar...

Speed Metal is our athletes, they are the ones that
we see running track or playing football, with the heads of corpses.
I'm too fat and lazy to hang with these guys, lets wee what Power Metal
is up to.

Progressive Metal is where our smartest minds are,
the scientists, the engineers, the doctors. These are the people I'd
like to hang around for a while, but wouldn't understand a fuckin' word
they're saying, and would constantly remind them to speak English.

Black Metal are our punks here. They are at war with every genre and
burn places to the ground, well, some of them. Most are just silly
people who like to dress up, and they'd be cool to hang around for a
little while.

R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman of Slayer

He passed away last night due to liver failure, possibly alcohol related.

He was a major part in influencing a new generation of Extreme Metal in the 80's and has been an influence to my own playing. He wrote the best songs in Slayer and he will be missed amongst the Metal community. R.I.P. Jeff, you will live on through your music and will continue to inspire influence, even in death.